Schoolbag Cleaning Tips for Back To School

How to Clean a Schoolbag in Five Easy Steps

The back-to-school season is often described as a fresh start or a clean slate, and what is more iconic than the schoolbag. It can be costly when stocking up on school supplies. With many families looking to save some dollars (and the environment too), I recommend reusing gear where possible. Embracing this idea I went in search of the best cleaning tips for parents.

For expert advice, I reached out to Melissa Maker from Clean My Space, a popular Toronto-based cleaning service, and the personality behind the wildly viewed YouTube DIY cleaning videos.

While she literally has a playlist of back-to-school cleaning videos, one of my favourites focuses on the battle of the schoolbag. According to Melissa, how to clean a schoolbag is the most popular question her team gets on this topic. Check out this VLOG to learn more. While helpful for the first day of school, these tips can be useful all year round to keep bags maintained and in good shape.

Here are Melissa’s tips and tricks to clean a schoolbag in five easy steps:

1) Read the care label first
All backpacks are NOT created equal. If you can’t find it, look for the brand online for wash instructions.

2) Pre-treat any stains ahead of time
You can do this with your favourite stain remover.

3) Most bags are machine washable
They can be washed with cold water on gentle cycle. The only caveat is if there are dangling straps from the bag, they need to be removed and washed by hand. Alternatively you can roll up the backpack and put in a delicates laundry bag for wash.

4) Hand washing works too
If you can’t machine wash backpack then wash by hand with warm water and dish liquid or laundry detergent with a scrub brush or sponge.

5) Hang schoolbag to dry
Although the dryer is tempting it can ruin the material.

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Joanne is a Director at Teachers on Call, a personalized home tutoring service with over 30 years of experience, providing one-on-one instruction in all subjects and grades. In addition to regularly blogging about educational news, learning strategies and the latest in student books, Joanne is a busy new mom and Co-Chair of the Corsage Project, a non-profit organization in partnership with the Children's Aid Foundation.